1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a side air bag apparatus for a vehicle, in particular, to a side air bag configured to allow an air bag unit equipped in a side door to reliably expand between an occupant and a side door during a side impact collision.
2. Prior Art
Heretofore, a side air bag apparatus for a vehicle has been configured as an air bag unit including a side air bag and an inflator providing a gas for expansion to this side air bag. In this side air bag apparatus, when a side impact (i.e. an collision from lateral direction) is detected by a side impact sensor, the gas for expansion generated from the inflator is provided to the side air bag, and the side air bag is then expanded between an occupant and the side door within an instantaneous term before an occupant secondarily collides against a side door due to the side impact, thereby the occupant is stopped by the expanded side air bag and be protected.
Up to now, a door mounted type side air bag apparatus in which an air bag unit is mounted inside a side door is variously offered for practical use. For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-58246, a side air bag apparatus is disclosed which has, in internal of a door, an inflator located inside an armrest, and a side air bag located above the inflator and between an door inner panel and a trim. The inflator and the side air bag are airtightly connected to each other through a duct.
A side door of a vehicle has an outer panel and an inner panel. A door trim is located on an inner surface of the side door faced to a vehicle occupant compartment. An opening is also formed on the inner panel for preventing interference between the inner panel and other components and also for attaching components inside the side door. An impact bar, which is excellent in strength and stiffness, is provided near an inner surface of the outer panel. In a recent side air bag, a cushion member made up of foam for shock-absorbing is also provided therein.
In door mounted type side air bag apparatuses, when a side door is deformed by applying an impact load to the side door during a side impact collision, a side air bag may not normally function to expand due to the fact that an inflator can be at fault, or a gas passage portion providing a gas for expansion from the inflator to the side air bag can be broken.
Otherwise, there is the possibility that the side air bag cannot accurately be expanded between an occupant and the side door due to the fact that orientation of the side air bag can be changed by the deformation of the side door.
Thus, in consideration of deformation of the side door during a side impact collision and also a required side door structure, it needs to set up a structure for protecting a portion containing the inflator and a gas passage forming portion, and for attaching the air bag unit to the inner panel with plural attaching portions. Sufficient measures have not been taken to solve the problems described above in the aforementioned side air bag apparatus of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-58246.
An object of the present invention is, in a side air bag apparatus for vehicle mounted in a side door, to prevent damage of a side air bag unit during a side impact collision, to reliably expand a side air bag between an occupant and the side door, and to simplify a structure for attaching the air bag unit to the side door.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a side air bag apparatus for a vehicle comprises:
a single air bag unit mounted in a side door including;
a side air bag expanded between an occupant and the side door when a side impact detector of a vehicle detects a side impact; and
an inflator providing a gas for expansion to this side air bag, the side air bag and the inflator being respectively contained in an upper portion and a lower portion of the air bag unit.
An upper attachment and lower attachment secure the air bag unit to an inner panel of the side door, wherein the air bag unit is configured to allow a lower portion of the air bag unit to swingably displace in a larger amount than an upper portion of the air bag unit during a side impact collision by providing at least one of a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment or a difference in the respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel.
When a side impact is detected by a side impact sensor, the gas for. expansion generated from the inflator is provided to the side air bag, and the side air bag is then expanded from the upper portion of the air bag unit toward a vehicle occupant compartment and is finally expanded between an occupant and the side door within an instantaneous term before an occupant secondarily collides against a side door due to the side impact, thereby the occupant is stopped by the expanded side air bag and is protected.
Since the inflator is contained in the lower portion of air bag unit and the side air bag is contained in the upper portion of air bag unit, and the lower portion of the air bag unit is swingably displaced in a larger amount than the upper portion of the air bag unit during a side impact collision, damage to the inflator and a gas passage portion extending from the inflator to the side air bag during a side impact collision are reliably prevented, thereby the side air bag can reliably be expanded during a side impact collision.
The aforementioned air bag unit is secured to the inner panel of the side door by the upper attachment and the lower attachment. In addition, by providing at least one of a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment or a difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel, the lower portion of the air bag unit is swingably displaced in a larger amount than the upper portion of the air bag unit during a side impact collision.
On this account, of providing at least one of a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment or a difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel, the air bag unit is configured to allow a lower portion of the air bag unit to swingably displace in larger amount than an upper portion of the air bag unit during a side impact collision. In typical side impact collisions, since the side impact load is transferred through the outer panel, the impact bar, the inner panel, and so on, the input position of the side impact load to the air bag unit is a position of the air bag unit with respect to the impact bar.
When a side impact load acts on the lower attachment more than to the upper attachment by the difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment, the lower attaching means is swingably displaced toward the vehicle occupant compartment in a larger amount than the upper attachment. When the displacement of the lower attachment toward the vehicle occupant compartment becomes lager than the displacement of the upper attachment toward the vehicle occupant compartment by the difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment, the lower attaching means is swingably displaced toward the vehicle occupant compartment in larger amount than the upper attachment.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a side air bag apparatus for a vehicle comprises:
a single air bag unit mounted in a side door including;
a side air bag expanded between an occupant and the side door when a side impact detector of a vehicle detects a side impact; and
an inflator providing a gas for expansion to this side air bag, the side air bag and the inflator being respectively contained in an upper portion and a lower portion of the air bag unit.
An upper attachment and lower attachment secure the air bag unit to an inner panel of the side door, wherein the air bag unit is configured to move substantially in parallel toward a vehicle occupant compartment during a side impact collision by providing at least one of a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact and the attachment or a difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel.
During a side impact collision, the side air bag is expanded from the upper portion of the air bag unit toward a vehicle occupant compartment to protect an occupant.
Since the inflator is contained in the lower portion of air bag unit and the side air bag is contained in the upper portion of air bag unit, and the air bag unit is moved substantially in parallel toward a vehicle occupant compartment during a side impact collision, damage to the inflator and a gas passage portion extending from the inflator to the side air bag during a side impact collision are reliably prevented, thereby the side air bag can reliably be expanded during a side impact collision.
The air bag unit is secured to the inner panel of the side door by the upper attachment and the lower attachment. In addition, by providing at least one of a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment or a difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel, the air bag unit is moved substantially in parallel toward a vehicle occupant compartment during a side impact collision. On this account, the air bag unit is configured to move substantially in parallel toward a vehicle occupant compartment during a side impact collision by providing at least one of a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment or a difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel. In typical side impact collision, since the side impact load is transfer through the outer panel, the impact bar, the inner panel, and so on, the input position of the side impact load to the air bag unit is a position of the air bag unit corresponding to the impact bar.
When substantially the same load is respectively acted to the lower attachment and the attachment means by a difference in distance to each attachment, the lower attachment and the upper attachment are moved substantially in parallel toward a vehicle occupant compartment. Due to the synergistic action caused from a difference in distance between an input position of a side impact load and each attachment and a difference in respective attaching strengths of each attachment to the inner panel, it may be caused the lower attaching means and the upper attachment to move substantially in parallel toward a vehicle occupant compartment.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a side air bag apparatus for a vehicle comprises:
a single air bag unit mounted in a side door including;
a side air bag expanded between an occupant and the side door when a side impact detector of a vehicle detects a side impact; and
an inflator for providing a gas for expansion to this side air bag, the side air bag and the inflator being respectively contained in an upper portion and a lower portion of the air bag unit.
An upper attachment and a lower attachment secure the air bag unit to an inner panel of the side door, wherein the air bag unit is configured to allow a lower portion of the air bag unit to swingably displace in larger amount than an upper portion of the air bag unit during a side impact collision by locating the side air bag unit inside an impact bar in width direction of a vehicle and setting up a distance between the impact bar and the lower attachment in a vertical direction smaller than a distance between the impact bar and the upper attachment in the vertical direction.
The aforementioned apparatus basically takes the same effect as the apparatus of the first aspect. That is, when a distance between the impact bar and the lower attachment in the vertical direction is smaller than the distance between the impact bar and the upper attachment in the vertical direction, a side impact load acting to the lower attachment becomes larger than a side impact load acting to the upper attachment, thereby a lower portion of the air bag unit is swingably displaced in a larger amount than an upper portion of the air bag unit during a side impact collision. As a result, damage to the inflator and a gas passage portion extending from the inflator to the side air bag during a side impact collision are reliably prevented, thereby the side air bag can reliably expand during a side impact collision as does the apparatus of the first aspect.
As a first preferable configuration in the apparatuses of the first, second and third aspects, each apparatus may further include a reinforcing member provided between the air bag unit and the inner panel covering an upper attaching portion to which the air bag unit is attached by the upper attachment and a lower attaching portion to which the air bag unit is attached by the lower attachment. Thus, stiffness around from the lower attaching portion to the upper attaching portion is increased so that it can certainly prevent the air bag unit from being deformed in a folded shape between the lower attaching portion and the upper attaching portion.
As a second preferable configuration in the apparatus of the third aspect, the apparatus may further include a shock-absorbing member provided between the air bag unit and the impact bar. Thus a side impact load can be absorbed through the shock-absorbing member and this reduced load acts on the air bag unit through the shock-absorbing member so that damage, such as local deformation of the air bag unit, can certainty be prevented.
As a third preferable configuration in the apparatuses of the first, second and third aspects, the air bag unit may be located between the inner panel and a door trim, and a containing portion of the inflator may be formed to protrude toward a vehicle occupant compartment more than a containing portion of the air bag. Further at least part of the inflator-containing portion may be located in an internal space of an armrest. In addition the air bag unit may be secured to the inner panel through the lower attachment at a position corresponding to a gas passage forming portion in which a gas passage portion is formed for providing a gas from the inflator to the side air bag.
Therefore, by way of making the inflator-containing portion protrude toward a vehicle occupant compartment more than the air bag containing portion and also locating at least part of the inflator-containing portion in an internal space of an armrest, a side impact load acts on the inflator-containing potion as little as possible during a side impact collision so that damage in the inflator-containing portion can be prevented and the internal space of the armrest can be effectively utilized for locating part of the inflator-containing portion.
Further since this air bag unit is secured to the inner panel through the lower attachment at a position corresponding to a gas passage forming portion in which a gas passage portion is formed for providing a gas from the inflator to the side air bag, it can prevent a side impact precedently acting on the inflator. In addition, though the gas passage forming portion lacks stiffness due to less thickness a in width direction of a vehicle compared with that of the inflator, braking down by bending due to a side impact load can be prevented.
In the first preferable configuration, the air bag containing portion of the 20 air bag unit may be formed to protrude toward the inner panel more than the inflator-containing portion. In addition, the apparatus may further include a first opening portion formed in the inner panel and opposed to a resultant protruding portion, wherein the reinforcing member may be formed in frame shape surrounding the first opening portion. Thus, since the air bag containing portion is protruded toward the inner panel more than the inflator-containing portion and the first opening portion opposed to the protruding portion is formed in the inner panel, it can make a side impact load difficult to act from the inner panel to the air bag containing portion.
Further, by means of providing the reinforcing member surrounding the first opening portion, strength and stiffness of an attaching structure for attaching the air bag unit to the inner panel can be increased and strength and stiffness of the inner panel in surrounding area of the first opening portion can be also increased.
In the third preferable configuration, the apparatus may further include a first displacement allowable portion located between the gas passage forming portion and the armrest to allow the gas passage forming portion to displace toward a vehicle occupant compartment during a side impact collision. Thus since displacement of the gas passage forming portion to a vehicle occupant compartment when the air bag unit is deformed to the vehicle occupant compartment by applying a side impact load, it can prevent that the gas passage forming portion is compressed or deformed in bended shape.
In the third preferable configuration, the apparatus may further include a second displacement allowable portion provided between the inflator-containing portion and the armrest to allow the inflator-containing portion too displace toward a vehicle occupant compartment during a side impact collision. Thus, since displacement of the inflator-containing portion toward a vehicle occupant compartment is allowed through the second displacement allowable portion when the air bag unit is displaced toward the vehicle occupant compartment by applying a side impact load, it can make it difficult to apply a compression load to the inflator-containing portion, thereby it can also prevent the inflator-containing portion from being damaged.
In the second preferable configuration, the apparatus may further include a second opening portion formed in the inner panel with being opposed to a lower portion of the inflator-containing portion, wherein at least part of the shock-absorbing member may be located between the impact bar and the lower attaching portion to which the air bag unit is attached by the lower attachment. Thus, since the second opening portion opposed to the lower portion of the inflator-containing portion is formed in the inner panel, it can make a side impact load difficult to be applied from the inner panel to the inflator-containing portion, thereby it can also prevent the inflator from being damaged. In addition, since at least part of the shock-absorbing member is located between the impact bar and the lower attaching portion to which the air bag unit is attached by the lower attachment, the load input to the lower attaching portion from the impact bar can be absorbed.
In the aforementioned preferable configurations, the apparatus may further include a second shock-absorbing member provided at a position corresponding to the air bag containing portion of the air bag unit with being separated from or integrated with the shock-absorbing member and the position is located outside the air bag containing portion in width direction of a vehicle. Thus the second shock-absorbing member is provided at the outside position corresponding to the air bag containing portion so that a side impact load acted to the air bag containing portion can be absorbed, thereby its damage can be prevented.